Colorado lawmakers have killed a measure that would’ve prohibited local police from hiding their identities while also giving them the explicit authority to step in when federal agents use excessive force.
In another vote, the House’s narrowly advanced during the meeting, which stretched into Tuesday night. That bill would broadly seek more transparency and oversight of some federal activities in the state.
The defeat of came after several hours of testimony on both measures. HB-1275 was backed by progressive and immigrant-rights organizations, but it was opposed by law enforcement groups.
It died on a 5-6 vote, with two Democrats joining the committee’s four Republicans in voting no.
“In the age of fascism, where our government is snatching people off the street into unmarked vehicles, without due process and (while) violating multiple constitutional rights, this was a modest step that we could have taken to keep our community safe — and I am extremely disappointed that we were not able to,” Rep. Yara Zokaie, a Fort Collins Democrat and one of the bill’s sponsors, said Wednesday morning.
The bill — which was significantly amended before it was voted down — would’ve generally required local enforcement officers to identify themselves, though it would not have applied to federal immigration agents, who are frequently masked and unidentified.
Zokaie and fellow sponsor Rep. Meg Froelich, an Englewood Democrat, said that though they couldn’t regulate federal authorities’ conduct, they wanted to distinguish local police from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Local law enforcement also would have had to receive training on the state’s immigration laws, which generally prohibit cooperation with federal officials on civil immigration enforcement. The bill would’ve given local Colorado-based police the explicit authority to intervene if federal agents use excessive force. The bill also underscored that local law enforcement can arrest federal agents who break state law.
ICE officers who later try to work for local agencies in Colorado would have been required to turn over their internal affairs file to a state board that certifies law enforcement.
, police officers must provide their business cards to certain people with whom they interact. Officers also must intervene when other state-regulated law enforcement uses excessive force.
The bill’s death, which comes amid an intense local and national backlash to ICE’s often-militarized enforcement tactics, was a shock. Supporters said Tuesday night that they believed it would pass after it had been effectively rewritten. On Wednesday, Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat who’s often worked on immigration legislation, said she was “stunned and appalled” that the bill died. But she said conversations were still underway about next steps to revive some of the bill’s aims.
Zokaie said she had expected the bill to clear the committee. Rep. Chad Clifford, one of the two Democrats who voted against the bill, is also listed among the bill’s more than 20 House sponsors.
Zokaie said her disappointment in the bill’s failure was compounded because “it was Democrats teaming up with the Republicans to do it.”
Republicans opposed the bill because it would have imposed additional regulations on local law enforcement. Clifford said the bill focused on local police even though “Colorado peace officers didn’t mess this up,” a reference to the backlash against ICE.
He and Denver Rep. Cecelia Espenoza, the other Democrat who opposed HB-1275, also questioned if the bill would have any impact, given that its identification elements would have applied only to local officers. Espenoza said she was concerned that the immigrant community would be “misled” about whom the bill applied to.
“I’m just not there (on there being) something here thatap going to change something,” Clifford, a Centennial Democrat, said. He added in an interview that he had agreed to co-sponsor the bill before it was fully drafted and released.
Christopher Nurse, the political director for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, criticized Espenoza’s comments.
“If I could have responded to her in the moment, I would have disagreed with her notion because there isn’t false hope in telling Coloradans and immigrants who live in this state that if somebody has the privilege to protect and serve us, we should know exactly who the hell they are,” he said. “I don’t see where there’s false hope in that.”
The bill that did pass the judiciary committee on Wednesday, , must now clear a second legislative committee. It passed on a 6-5 vote, with Espenoza and the committee’s Republicans opposed. The bill generally would require state agencies to publicly release subpoenas sent by federal immigration authorities that the state has fulfilled.
The bill also would require additional health inspections of detention centers beyond what’s required now. It would seek to block airports from assisting ICE’s deportation efforts by providing any kind of transportation to individuals.
The bill’s sponsors, Democratic Reps. Lorena Garcia and Elizabeth Velasco, also added an amendment Tuesday prohibiting ICE agents from entering nonpublic areas of jails without a warrant. A similar provision had been stripped from an immigration bill passed by the legislature last year, and its return comes amid criticism from advocates that immigrants without proper legal status have been arrested by ICE inside local jails.
Staff writer Nick Coltrain contributed to this story.
